Angola, DRC and Zambia-Digging tunnels that never meet- Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba

Angola, DRC and Zambia-Digging tunnels that never meet

By Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba

When I was Permanent Secretary in Western Province, I visited Angola to understand their development initiatives and to help coordinate and collaborate on shared programs such as cattle disease control.

The Province shares boundaries with Angola to the west and Namibia to the south.

Zambia was developing an ambitious trade route to link Angola-Zambia and exploit the huge economic opportunities between the two developing states.

Zambia had invested in the $350million Mongu-Kalabo road and there were plans for a wide tarmac road from Kalabo to the border town of Sikongo, power transmission lines, and a brand new border station at Sikongo.

To my horror, I discovered that Angola’s plan were strongly leaning towards Shangombo were a new all weather road and rail were being planned from the capital Luanda to Rivungo Town in Angola, the nearest town to Shangombo.

In this area, Zambua and Angola are separated by the Cuando river.

Further Angola was planning a $40million Public Private Partnership project to construct and develop a 10-kilometers channel on the Cuando River as a quick way to link Zambia and Angola.

The Cuando River, and the bank (rather than the river channel) forms the border with Angola. Rivungo is a town and municipality in Cuando-Cubango Province in Angola.

The provincial Governor informed us that Angola was targeting Shangombo district as the rail link to Mulobezi was only 200km away and would provide the country the railink to the Southern Africa corridor.

Angola had also just completed a multi-billion dollar rehabilitation of the Lobito-Benguela railway line  that connected Zambia through DRC at Luau.

To enjoy a direct link to the Benguela railway line, Zambia must invest in rail link from Chingola via Solwezi, Mwinilunga to Jimbe and Angola has to develop a link from Luena to Jimbe.

I kept on thinking about our multibillion dollar investments made in the Mongu-Kalabo-Sikongo-Malundu route while Angola appeared focused on the link through Shangombo or Jimbe border in Noryhwestern province.

We seemed to have been sinking two tunnels that would never meet.

Where is the collaboration in the development plans between the two countries? What’s the purpose of those joint commissions

Currently, we seem to be making similar uncoordinated development with our neighbour the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

We are investing in the Lusaka-Ndola Dual Carriage Way and Chingola-Kasumbalesa projects.

Zambia has also given a concession of the Ndola-Mufulira and together with development of the Sakanya Border Post.

The project is a design, finance, build, operate, maintain and transfer of the road and associated border infrastructure.

Zambia appears to be making these investments decisions targeting Lubumbashi and Kolwezi and assuming that the current traffic volumes will continue even when future prospects and projections show otherwise.

The is also the investment in the Kasomeno-Mwenda Toll Road Project, touted as the largest single private infrastructure investment from Europe into Africa by the Project sponsor, Duna Aszfalt Zrt., a Hungarian construction company.

If successful, the project will consist of the following main elements:

1. Modernization, construction, and expansion of 184km of road highway.
2. Construction of a 345m cable-stayed bridge over the border at the Luapula river.

3. It will also include the construction of a one-stop border posts with accompanying warehousing and parking facilities.

Then there is the Lobito Corridor Project

The  current shipping route for the DRC involves Zambia.

Sadly it takes close to one month and involves driving 2,000 miles from the Congolese mining capital of Kolwezi to the Indian Ocean port of Durban, South Africa.

At border crossings, the line of mineral-carrying trucks can extend for over 30 miles.

Once the raw material reaches Durban, there are often further delays due to shutdowns caused by floods, strikes, social unrest, and the port’s general unreliability.

The other common routes are also by road, serving the ports of Walvis Bay, Namibia; Beira, Mozambique; and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and facing similar duration and cost issues.

LOBITO PROJECT

This is the project that Western countries are pushing because Zambia and the DRC are endowed with critical minerals required for the global energy transition.

The two countries enjoy major deposits of copper, cobalt, tin, tantalum, and lithium among other minerals.

In October 2023, a consortium named the Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR)—composed of Swiss commodities trader Trafigura (49.5 percent), Portuguese construction company Mota-Engil (49.5 percent), and Belgian private railway operator Vecturis (one percent)—won a 30-year concession of the tracks, beating out the competing, Chinese-backed bid.

LAR will invest US$455 million in Angola and US$100 million in the DRC. It will refurbish the existing tracks, lay around 350 miles of new rail from the Angola-Zambia border at Jimbe to Chingola in the Zambian Copperbelt Province, construct 160 miles of feeder roads, and provide 1,500 wagons and 35 locomotives.

In late 2023, the DRC, Angola, Zambia, United States, European Union, African Development Bank (AfDB), and Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) all signed memoranda of understanding (MOUs) establishing a shared vision for the project.

The Lobito Corridor’s total estimated cost is between US$1 billion and US$2.3 billion. The AfDB will contribute around US$500 million, and the United States will invest US$250 million.

Conclusion

Zambia must heighten her diplomatic engagements with both Angola and DRC. The current development initiatives may not councide with the costly projects Zambia, Angola and DRC are pushing.

We may be digging tunnels that would never meet!